Fasting opens our eyes

Fasting is an aid to open our eyes to the situation in which so many of our brothers and sisters live.

In his First Letter, Saint John admonishes: “If anyone has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, yet shuts up his bowels of compassion from him – how does the love of God abide in him?” (3,17).
By freely embracing an act of self-denial for the sake of another, we make a statement that our brother or sister in need is not a stranger.
It is precisely to keep alive this welcoming and attentive attitude towards our brothers and sisters that I encourage the parishes and every other community to intensify in Lent the custom of private and communal fasts, joined to the reading of the Word of God, prayer and almsgiving.
From the beginning, this has been the hallmark of the Christian community, in which special collections were taken up (cf. 2 Cor 8-9; Rm 15, 25-27), the faithful being invited to give to the poor what had been set aside from their fast.
This practice needs to be rediscovered and encouraged again in our day, especially during the liturgical season of Lent. It is good to see how the ultimate goal of fasting is to help each one of us to make the complete gift of self to God
May every family and Christian community use well this time of Lent, therefore, in order to cast aside all that distracts the spirit and grow in whatever nourishes the soul, moving it to love of God and neighbor.

Excerpt taken from: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/lent/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20081211_lent-2009_en.html